Cardamom Cookies
Big crinkly brown sugar cardamom cookies! These incredibly chewy cookies develop big cracks when baking that fall when cooled. Cardamom, freshly crushed, is infused into the butter for a strong, warm cardamom flavor.
This cardamom cookie recipe started with a cardamom molasses cookie topped with pomegranate glaze I was testing last year. It’s based on my ginger molasses cookies but I found that I wanted a cardamom cookie that tasted strongly of cardamom, without the robustness of molasses.
Doing without the molasses presents a bit of a challenge, because they really aid in creating a chewy crinkle cookie. I also, as I cannot help it, just love me a big chewy crinkle cookie and so I aimed to create something that looked like it but was fully, wholly cardamom!
Recipe Origins
I shared a rosemary brown butter cookie recipe via my substack last winter; it’s brown sugar based and the fresh rosemary is infused into the butter as it browns. This is the recipe I started with, thinking the cardamom would be a good fit in lieu of the rosemary.
Recipe testing however gave me cookies that didn’t spread enough and weren’t as chewy and crinkly as I liked. I was also testing with ground cardamom and didn’t find the flavor as strong as I wanted it. I reworked the recipe to skip the browning and keep that extra fat, added baking powder to get the puff and cracks, added a little bit more flour and cornstarch to get some lovely chewy cookies with great structure.
Recipe Ingredients
Butter: unsalted butter. Cold is fine, we’re melting it. If you are using salted butter, halve the amount of salt added to the cookie dough.
Cardamom: whole black seeds. This enables us to coax the flavor out fresh from the seeds (rather than use ground cardamom where the flavor will be more muted) and so we have big bits that cardamom lovers can stumble upon and enjoy.
Lemon or orange: optional, gives the cookies another dimension of flavor which works well with the warm cardamom.
Brown sugar: Light or dark is fine.
Sugar: fine granulated sugar.
Vanilla: pure vanilla extract. Vanilla bean paste is great too!
Salt: fine sea salt. If using table salt, halve the amount.
Egg: one whole large egg.
Flour: all purpose flour of a medium to high protein content, around 11%.
Baking powder & baking soda: to help the cookies spread, rise and then fall and crack.
Cornstarch: also known as corn flour. This helps keep the cookies chewy. Tapioca starch/flour is a fine substitute.
How to Make Cardamom Cookies
Make the Dough
Use a mortar and pestle to crush the cardamom seeds until half of them are powdery.
Melt and infuse the butter with cardamom: set the butter in a skillet over very low heat (just enough to melt it) and set the cardamom in the butter. Leave the cardamom to infuse into the butter for at least 10 minutes. If the butter is getting too hot, take it off the heat. We only wanted it melted.
Zest in the lemon or orange, if using: into the cardamom/butter mixture and stir it.
Scrape the butter and all the bits into a medium sized bowl and add the sugars, salt, and vanilla.
Briefly warm the mixture in the microwave for just 30 seconds, then whisk very well.
Add the egg and whisk until the mix is smooth and shiny.
Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and starch and use a rubber spatula to stir until no flour bits remain.
Cover the dough and set in the fridge for an hour – this firms up the dough so the cookies won’t overspread in the oven.
Top & Bake
Use the same mortar and pestle to crush the sugar for the topping, a pinch of salt and more cardamom seeds. Run this through a sieve so you have cardamom sugar, without any big bits.
Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper – a little bit of grease on the pan helps the parchment adhere.
Scoop the cookie dough into 2 tablespoon portions per cookie and leave enough space around them, about 2 inches. These are big cookies and big spreaders!
Roll the cookie dough in the cardamom sugar to coat it. Repeat with all the cookie dough.
Bake the cookies for 12-13 minutes, you’re looking for golden edges and cookies that have spread, puffed up and cracked.
Let cool briefly on the pan then transfer to a wire rack.
FAQ & Troubleshooting
I don’t have whole cardamom seeds. Can I use ground?
You can, though the flavor won’t be as pronounced. I would try 2 teaspoons of ground cardamom but you might want to up it to a tablespoon.
If I wanted to glaze the cookies, how can I do it?
Mix 130g or 1 cup powdered sugar with a dash of vanilla, a pinch of salt, some ground cardamom (½-1 teaspoon depending on how strong you like it) and then whisk in a couple of tablespoons of milk just to make the glaze pourable. If you’ve poured too much, add more powdered sugar.
Then dip the cookies in the glaze face down. Alternatively you can spoon it over the cookies in a zigzag motion.
My cookies didn’t spread. What did I do wrong?
Most often this is caused by over-measuring the flour: packing it into the cup rather than shaking the flour over the cup until full, then leveling it. For best results use a scale.
Not spreading could also have something to do with the baking powder/baking soda and its freshness.
My cookies were so thin and spread too much. What went wrong?
Cookies will usually over spread due to one of the following: the flour protein being too low, (or undermeasured, though this is very infrequent), the dough not having chilled enough, using butter that is actually margarine, or not using parchment paper on the pan.
Cardamom Cookie Recipe
Cardamom Cookies
Ingredients
Cardamom Cookie
- 113g or ½ cup unsalted butter
- 2 teaspoons cardamom seeds removed from green shell
- Zest of 1-2 lemons or zest of 1 orange optional
- 150g or ¾ cups brown sugar light or dark
- 50g or ¼ cup fine granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 large egg
- 175g or 1 ¼ cups plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch cornflour
Sugared Topping
- 50g or ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon cardamom seeds
- Pinch fine sea salt
Method
- Set the butter in a skillet over low heat. Crush the cardamom seeds with a mortar and pestle until you have some large seeds but also some cardamom powder. Add it to the melting butter and turn off the heat. The residual heat from the pan should melt the rest of the butter. Set aside for 10 minutes so the cardamom flavor can be infused into the butter.
- Once cool, zest the lemon (or orange, if you prefer) into the butter and stir to combine. Transfer the butter (along with everything added to it) to a medium sized mixing bowl.
- Add the sugars (fine granulated and brown) to the bowl along with the salt and vanilla and whisk well, for 30 seconds.
- Set the bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds, so the butter and sugar begin to melt together.
- Whisk the mixture for another 30 seconds until the mix turns thick and shiny.
- Add the egg and whisk until smooth. Add the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and baking soda and switch to a rubber spatula. Stir until the cookie dough is smooth and there are no visible flour bits.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap to seal and set in the fridge for at least an hour but up to 4 hours.
- When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper (grease them first so the parchment stays in place).
- For the sugared topping: add cardamom seeds to the mortar again along with the sugar and pinch of salt. Use the pestle to crush the seeds into the sugar. Then sift the sugar to get rid of any big chunks. Alternatively just whisk together ½-1 teaspoon ground cardamom with the sugar.
- Portion the cookies into 2 tablespoon scoops per cookie. Roll the cookie dough balls around the bowl of sugar to coat. Then place on the pan. Leave a lot of room around the cookies, these spread quite a bit.
- Bake the cookies on the middle rack of the oven until they puff up and crack and the sides begin to turn golden brown, for about 12 minutes (less if your cookies are smaller).
- Let the cookies cool on the pan before moving.
Did you make this recipe?
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I ended up using 2 tsp of cardamom powder instead and these still turned out great. I might cut down on the baking powder next time however since they were quite leaven. All of my friends loved them though.
If I don’t have cardamom pods, and only the already ground powder, how much would You say to use?
Thank you!
I would say about a teaspoon but it depends how strong you want it to be!
Love these for the warmth and chewy texture, and pure and punchy cardamom flavor.
11/10 no notes. If, like me, you a cardamom fiend, make these. If you are not a cardamom fiend, make these!
Sam I’ve just pulled these from the oven, and if the dough is anything to go by, then I am an immediate addict! A great, quick way to get the cardamom fix I’m always in search of. Thanks for your advice too about swapping the cinnamon the the brown butter cookie recipe – I’ll be giving that a go to! Thanks for all your hard work. Have loved baking your recipe this arvo here in Melbourne, Australia.
Hi Sam, I can’t wait to make these tomorrow! Cardamom is my fave. I wonder if I was to chill the dough all day/overnight they’d be thicker and spread less?
Hi Liz, if you wanted them thicker I might instead change the leavening (baking soda/baking powder). These were designed to be flatter, crinkle cookies so a lot went into that: balancing butter and flour ratios, adjusting the leavening, etc. For a thicker cookie I might just make these brown butter cookies but use only cardamom to spice them (skip the cinnamon) and that might be more to your desired texture.